FO: Gavotte

Whether or not I finish my November sweater before December 1, at least I can say I completed one sweater this month. So I started it in September - minor details.



Formerly known as the Green Blob, here is my Gavotte. The pattern is by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, who probably needs no introduction. This is the second pattern of hers I've knitted, the first being Idlewood. Once I wrapped my head around (again) the weird wording for the k1-r/b increase, the pattern was easy to follow. It's probably just me, but I really have a hard time understanding that particular explanation. And I forgot how to interpret it between finishing Idlewood and starting Gavotte, so I had to go on a google expedition to figure it out again. Ah well, maybe now I will remember it! It is a really tidy increase.



Mods:
I added lots of length. I lost track, but I think it was almost 6 inches. Even for me with my long torso, that is quite a lot. I'm tired of things coming out cropped accidentally, so I may have overdone it. It blocked to a comfortably long-enough length. I intended to lengthen the sleeves as well, but ran out of yarn due to adding so much length in the body. It's fine.

The neckline rolls at the front, which is par for the course with stockinette. It was looking massively huge, so I didn't block the edge aggressively to attempt to combat rolling. The pick-up / bind-off edging did help pull the neck in so it isn't massive, but it doesn't help with the rolling. Too bad. I don't really mind.



Yarn:
I used MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino in a lovely forest-green colour. The yarn was lovely to knit with. It is very soft and sproingy, with excellent stitch definition. Thus, my uneven stockinette shows up very well. Blocking helped with that, though.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be very hard-wearing at this drapey gauge. After wearing the sweater for one whole day, I noticed some pilling under the arms. I will likely use this yarn again, but maybe for items that don't experience much friction, and definitely at tighter gauges.

Oh well. I will wear this happily and with careful de-pilling maintenance.

See more FOs at Tami's blog.

Sweater update

We are over halfway through November, and supposedly I'm going to finish a sweater by the end of it. Let's see how I'm doing.



I currently have a purple blob of stockinette. If you look closely you may be able to tell that it has arm holes. (Necessary things in a sweater). As of this writing, I've finished the waist decreases, and am chugging away towards the hip increases. I suppose I'm not quite halfway through the sweater, but now that I don't have all those sleeve stitches to deal with, rounds go fairly quickly. Hurray!

Both the yarn and pattern are enjoyable so far. New Lanark seems like a hardwearing yarn - it is very sturdy. Since the last thing I knit was with very sproingy merino, it took a little while for my hands to get used to the sturdy, strong feel of this yarn. That kind of slowed my progress a bit at first, since I had to take lots of breaks to let me hands recover. It's not actually that scratchy (though it's no malabrigo), but it does seem much less elastic than some wool yarns I've used. I'm still enamoured with the subtle shifting colours, which don't look anything like that completely unsubtle photograph. Even though I adjusted the white balance. Haha.

So. How are your November projects going?

What's this? Not a sweater?

A few years ago my grandmother asked me to knit her a hat, and so I made her a Coronet. She loved it and apparently all her friends complimented her on her lovely hat. I do like a successful gift knit! Anyway, the hat is starting to wear out, and she has asked me for another one. This time in red. Bright red. I thought about changing up the cable pattern, but it turns out she wants the same thing. Who am I to ignore a specific request?



It is indeed BRIGHT red. The yarn is Cascade 220, ordered off the internet, so I wasn't quite sure what colour I was getting... but there it is. It is brighter than it looks on my screen, and not at all pink. I think it is perfect, but hopefully Grandma agrees.



I'm not knitting this as quickly as I'd like, because I am also working hard on my November sweater - more on that later. The cable band is the most time-consuming part, though, so once I get that done it should proceed quickly.

BlaDiBlaMo?

It's November - have you enthusiastically committed to an unpronounceable, inappropriately abbreviated month-long activity yet? I've done NaNoWriMo once, NaBloPoMo a few times, but never the sweater one before. So this year, my challenge is to knit a sweater in the month of November.

Because I'm a slow sweater-knitter, for me to have any chance of success I knew I had to choose something fairly simple and use moderately heavy yarn. I've decided to knit the Ladies' Classic Raglan Pullover by Jane Richmond. If I manage it, maybe next year I'll try something more complicated, but for now Worsted/Aran weight stockinette seems like the best plan!



The yarn I bought is New Lanark Aran, in the delightful Blueberry colourway. New Lanark is a historic cotton mill village and world heritage site, whose mill now produces wool yarns. Shamefully, I've never been to visit, even though it's not that far from Edinburgh - maybe next year! This particular colourway is tweedy and deep - there are so many different colours there that combine to make a purpley-blue. Really, there's green and yellow, and all manner of blues, purples, and teals in there. I'm really looking forward to seeing it knit up.



Now I've got to swatch! What are you up to this November?